Treating Trauma in Adolescents: Development, Attachment, and the Therapeutic Relationship

To work with troubled and traumatized adolescents, it’s crucial for therapists and other caregivers to first foster an adult capacity for self-awareness and self-regulation. It’s not easy, especially when the youths’ extreme reactions—ranging from angry, agitated arousal to frozen shutting down—can trigger our own sense of frustration and helplessness.

In this workshop, Dr. Straus will describe Developmental-Relational Therapy (DRT), an attachment-based model of adolescent trauma treatment. Through lecture, discussion, exercises, and video clips, you will learn and practice mindful, empathic strategies that can help even the most challenging and distressed teens feel more secure, connected, present, and regulated.

Learning Objectives:

Explore specific adolescent attachment styles that interact with and trigger your own

Practice the four M’s—mirroring, mentalizing, mindfulness, and modulation—to increase connection and mood regulation

Presenter:

Martha B. Straus, PhD, Professor in the Department of Clinical Psychology at Antioch University New England Graduate School in Keene, New Hampshire; international trainer on child, adolescent, and family development, attachment, trauma, and therapy; author of five books including, most recently, Treating Trauma in Adolescents: Development, Attachment, and the Therapeutic Relationship.